Slay Time
by Sisiutil
Summary: An alternate version of Smile Time. Buffy visits L.A. and finds Angel in puppet form. She goes off to the Smile Time studios to find whoever or whatever is responsible. NOT a good idea... COMPLETE.
1. Part 1 of 3

**Slay Time**

_An Angel fanfic by Sisiutil_

* * *

Joss and ME own the characters, I'm just playing with them.

This one is just for fun. This story is an alternate version of "Smile Time".

* * *

**Part 1**

"Stupid magic spells..."

Angel sat at his desk, trying to remain calm. He'd been through so much in nearly two hundred and fifty years on Earth. He'd brought terror, pain, and death to hundreds of people as one of the worst vampires in history. He'd spent nearly a hundred years brooding on the misery he'd caused once he'd been cursed with a soul. He'd spent the last several years trying to atone for those sins, first in Sunnydale, then in Los Angeles.

He'd known the glory and the pain of true love along the way, and had lost that love. He'd been to hell. In more ways than one. He'd taken over the source of most of the evil in L.A., the demonic law firm Wolfram and Hart, and was trying to use it to do some good.

And now? Now, after all that? Had he been forgiven? Had he Shanshued? Had he been cast back into the pits of hell?

No. Now he was a _puppet_.

Angel sat in his now over-sized chair and stared at his tiny, felt-covered, three-fingered hands. Had he really done _that_ much damage, he wondered, to warrant this? Atonement was one thing, but abject humiliation was quite another. Fred had actually called him cute. _Cute! _And not in the way that a man likes to hear.

Then there was Spike, gleefully taking any advantage of any opportunity to mock him, and Angel had lost it--pretty easy to do, a short temper was a side-effect of the spell--and now the whole office knew. At least Nina didn't know. Not yet, anyway, but if this went on much longer... Angel shook his foam-rubber and felt head when he thought of how he'd actually _hidden under his desk_ from her. Pathetic. But he could nothing except sit here and wait for his team to come up with a solution.

He decided he needed a distraction. The Rockies were playing the Devils tonight; it promised to be a good game. He reached for the remote control of his office entertainment center and awkwardly pulled it across the desk towards him. He concentrated, took careful aim, and slowly pressed his little felt finger towards the ON button. He missed, and the oak paneled doors that usually concealed his office television began to hum closed. He watched them close morosely, then his puppet brow folded downwards in a frown and he let out something halfway between a growl and a sigh.

"Stupid puppet hands..." he muttered.

Apparently, besides increasing his excitability, the spell also ensured he had as much coordination as if his limbs were being controlled second-hand, just like a normal puppet. Well, Angel thought, at least he wasn't walking around with some guy's arm stuck up his ass.

"Huh," Puppet Angel grumbled, "if I was, with my luck, it would probably be Spike's..."

* * *

Outside Angel's office, Harmony Kendall busied herself with a crucial task. It had been bothering her since she'd noticed it on the way to work that morning (_before_ sunrise, of course) and she'd finally decided to take action.

She almost had the troublesome nail smoothed out now. Filing her nails had the added benefit of keeping her from thinking about how freaky it was to be working for a puppet all of a sudden. Harmony had never much liked thinking at the best of times. It took too much time and made her head hurt.

She'd thought being evil would have been easy, but _no_. There were malevolent plans to be laid, minions to recruit, and a lot of waiting in skanky back alleys and stuff for your hapless victims to bumble into you. Being on the senior prom committee back at Sunnydale High had been easier, especially since all the geeky kids wound up doing the work.

That was why she'd taken the job at Wolfram and Hart. She didn't have to think so hard anymore--just show up, answer the phones, and bingo! She had enough blood back in her fridge to see her through--well, tomorrow, anyway. She'd never been very good at planning ahead either. But it kept her out of trouble, and that was important these days. Thanks to that little busybody from her home town, there were _tons _of Vampire Slayers crawling around now. Harmony shuddered at the thought. Bad enough when there was just one...okay, technically, two. Now, she half-expected a platoon of the little bitches to come waltzing into the lobby and...

"Harmony Kendall," a familiar female voice said, "why am I _not _ surprised to see _you _here?"

Harmony froze in mid-file. Her blue eyes went wide and her mouth dropped open as she looked up from her nails. Here she'd just been thinking of her, and now, there she was, standing right on the other side of her desk. Not just any Vampire Slayer, no, _the _Vampire Slayer.

"Buffy!" Harmony said, forcing a phony smile of delight on her face and rising from her chair. "What a surprise! Gosh, I haven't seen you since..."

"Since you and Spike held a doctor hostage and tried to kill me and my boyfriend?" Buffy said. Her honey-blond hair was loose and long, cascading down each side of her slender face with the slightest of waves. She was dressed in a short, brown leather jacket, white blouse, and tight black pants--elegant and stylish, but ready for battle as well, Harmony noted nervously. She was sure she could make out the bulge of a wooden stake--maybe two--in that leather jacket.

"Oh," Harmony said, shrugging apologetically, "hey, bygones under the bridge, right?" she said, laughing nervously.

"Whatever," Buffy said. "Relax, if I was here to take out the most inept vampire in demonic history, you'd be dust already. I'm here to see Angel."

"Oh!" Harmony said, brightening. "Well, that's okay then. Except you can't," she added as Buffy turned and started to walk towards Angel's office. "Oh, and, hey!" she added, suddenly realizing she should object to Buffy's insult.

"And why not?" Buffy asked, her head slowly turning towards Harmony.

"He's...indisposed?" Harmony said weakly, her brows raising and her lips twisting uncertainly.

"Indisposed," Buffy repeated as she crossed her arms and rolled her eyes towards the ceiling. An unpleasant smile appeared on her lips. "That's the term the secretary uses when the wife shows up and the boss is busy banging the secretary on his desk and, okay, I didn't quite think that scenario through all the way, but the point is I'm going in there, and you can't stop me."

"But...!" Harmony interjected as Buffy turned and walked towards Angel's door.

"Don't use that word with me unless you want me to knock you on it," the Vampire Slayer said threateningly.

* * *

Angel sat at his desk, his puppet brow creased into a deep, frustrated frown. He'd been trying, for the last few minutes, to use his phone, but he couldn't pick up the receiver, and couldn't even manage to hit the hands-free button. His puppet jaw was skewed to one side of his face in frustration.

"Stupid phone...this just can't get any worse..." he muttered.

His head popped up when the door to his office suddenly opened. He watched with growing horror as the one person he'd rather die than have see him in this condition walked through it. He saw the slender frame, the stylish clothes, the blond hair that was the closest thing to sunlight he'd encountered that wouldn't kill him, not literally anyway, and if he'd had a heart in his puppet body and if it had been capable of beating it would have skipped one.

"Angel?" Buffy said. She had turned to look away from his desk, at the other end of his office. It gave him the merest of moments to decide what to do. In the end, he knew, there was only one thing he could do.

A puzzled frown crossed Buffy's lovely face when she heard a soft thumping noise from her right. She turned and saw a large mahogany desk with a wall filled with weapons behind it. One corner of her mouth tugged into a slight grin as she thought how the decor--CEO meets medieval crusader--told her that this just _had _to be Angel's office. But she didn't see him anywhere. She took a step towards the desk and heard a soft scuffling noise coming from the desk--no, from _beneath _the desk, she suddenly realized.

"Angel?" she said again. "Are you there?"

"No, I'm not!" Angel replied, then silently cursed. Now the puppet spell was making him participate in stupid jokes against his will!

"Very funny," Buffy said, her forced smile belying the words. "Are you...hiding under your desk?" she asked, incredulous.

"Uh, I dropped something," Angel said.

"Well, would you pick it up and get you undead butt out here?" Buffy said. She crossed her arms and cocked her head slightly; had Angel seen her, he would have known she was annoyed. Then again, he didn't need to see her to know that; it was obvious from her tone of voice. "We need to talk."

"Great," Angel muttered from beneath his desk. "Just the words a man longs to hear..."

"What was that?" Buffy asked sharply.

"Nothing!" Angel responded. "Uh, we can talk while I'm under here, can't we? I can hear you just fine."

"No we can't!" Buffy insisted, her annoyance growing. "What are you, six years old? Huh. Last time I thought you were twelve. You're regressing! Look, Andrew told me what he said to you when you guys brought Dana in, and...well, I just didn't want to leave things like that between us. So I flew all the way from Italy to talk to you _in person_. To _you_, not to a piece of furniture, no matter how elegant, manly, and finely crafted it is. So will you please start acting like a grown vampire and GET OUT FROM UNDER THAT STUPID DESK?!"

"All right..." Angel grumbled. It was no use. If he delayed any longer, Buffy would just pick the desk up and hurl it across the office. And he kind of liked the desk. And the office, too, as a matter of fact. He slowly forced himself to his little puppet feet, then shuffled reluctantly around the desk and into view.

Buffy was looking at the desk, obviously expecting her ex-lover to pop up from beneath the middle of it, in front of his chair. She hadn't even noticed Puppet Angel, standing beside the desk in front of her.

"Well...?" Angel prompted her.

Buffy's head turned, startled by the way the voice she knew so well originated so close to the floor. Then she spotted him. Her eyes went wide, and her mouth dropped open. Angel's brow twitched, then he looked down abashedly and idly kicked at a piece of lint on the carpet.

"_Angel?!_" Buffy exclaimed. "You're...you're..."

"Yeah, I know," Puppet Angel grumbled. "I was trying to track down the source of this weird phenomenon, and got hit by some magic whammy, and now I'm..."

"_ADORABLE!!_" Buffy cried.

Puppet Angel looked up at her, his brow elevated, and did a surprised double-take. Her face was alight with an expression of child-like delight that normally would have brought tears of joy to his eyes. Instead, he was horrified. Buffy extended both arms towards him, stepped forward, and bent down. The instinct to scuttle away hit Angel a moment too late. In a flash, Buffy had lifted him from the floor and up into the air, her arms raised and fully extended, a broad smile on her face.

_No, no, NO! _Puppet Angel thought. _Not this, ANYTHING but this! Please, somebody, anybody, just send me back to hell! _

"Aren't you just the _cutest little thing!_" Buffy exclaimed. She giggled like the schoolgirl she had been when Angel first saw her. It did nothing to endear her to him at this moment.

"Buffy, no, please!" Angel begged. His little legs were swinging uselessly beneath him. "Don't do this!"

But Buffy didn't seem to hear him. With a delighted squeal, she pulled his little body close to hers and hugged him against her. "Ooooh!" she cooed. "You're so soft and squeezy!"

"Unnnggh...Buffy...not...so...tight!" Angel groaned. She was squeezing him with all her Slayer strength. He could feel his stuffing compressing. It got him angry, and he began to press against her, trying desperately to escape. "Buffy, knock it off!"

Buffy pulled Puppet Angel away from her body and once again held him at arm's length. She saw his puppet brow creased in anger and his wide slash of a mouth pressed together and laughed. "Now, now!" she said in a condescending tone, pushing her lower lip out in a mock pout, "who's the stern widdle puppet?"

"Okay, that's _enough_!" Angel declared angrily. He raised his little arms and chopped down at Buffy's wrists.

"Ow!" she cried, releasing him. Angel dropped to the floor. He landed on his feet, and scuttled back from her.

"All right," he said, pointing one little felt finger at her, "no hugs, no boo-boo lips, and no baby-talk!" Buffy frowned petulantly at him. "Have a little _respect_, will you? You think I'm _enjoying _this?"

"Sorry," Buffy said abashedly, then sighed. "You're right, I shouldn't have gotten carried away."

"Darn tootin'", Angel said, crossing his little arms and fixing his puppet glare upon her.

A repressed snort of laughter escaped Buffy's lips at the sight. "You _are _really cute, though."

Angel growled angrily, then shook his head. "Look, Buffy, now isn't the best time to have a little talk," he said. "I've got everyone working on this, and maybe when Wes or somebody finds a way to break the spell, we can..."

"Who did this to you?" Buffy said. She was over the initial shock and was rapidly regaining her composure, not to mention her battle instincts.

"There's this kid's show in town called Smile Time," Angel told her. "Looks like there might be demonic activity involved, sucking energy out of kids and leaving them in comas."

"That's horrible!" Buffy declared, her eyes widening in shock.

"Oh, and being turned into a puppet is okay?" Angel said sharply.

"No, of course not," Buffy said, shaking her head. "So, you went down to where they produce this show, and...?"

"This happened," Angel admitted.

"Okay," Buffy said, slipping back into command mode. "You stay here where you're protected. If any of your enemies find out you're in this condition, they're sure to come after you."

"Uh, most of my enemies work for me now," Angel told her.

"Oh," Buffy said, frowning. "Right. Well, still, stay here. Does Harmony have the address of this place?"

"Well, yeah, but..."

"Okay then. I'll see you shortly," Buffy said. She turned on her heel and marched out the door. After a brief visit to Harmony's desk, she walked through the lobby towards the building's entrance.

Puppet Angel watched her go in shock and admiration. She was so brave, so in command. No wonder he'd fallen in love with her so powerfully. What man wouldn't? Actually, he reflected, being hugged like that hadn't been all bad. Maybe when she got back from the Smile Time studio...

Suddenly, Puppet Angel's wide mouth dropped open and his heavy brow raised in alarm. He ran out of his office as quickly as his little legs could carry him, out into the lobby, where everyone stopped to stare at him again like they had earlier, but that wasn't important, nowhere near as important as...

"BUFFY!" Angel shouted, but she was nowhere to be seen. She'd already left.

* * *

Some time later, Buffy was walking through an abandoned corridor at the Smile Time studios. She walked cautiously, her narrow, fair brows creased in a slight frown. All her senses were on alert, as they always were when she was heading into a potentially dangerous situation. She knew she probably wouldn't be encountering vampires, but not for the first time, her fingers touched her jacket, feeling the shape of the wooden stake that was in her inside coat pocket.

She rounded a corridor and spotted a file cabinet that was askew, pushed away from what looked like its normal resting place against the wall, revealing a large hole. Buffy stared at the hole for a moment. She could hear a low, throbbing rumble coming from it.

"Now I know why kids' shows gave me the creeps once I hit puberty," Buffy muttered. She walked up to the hole and through it.

She entered a dark hallway illuminated only by a buzzing overhead light. She looked down the corridor and saw a doorway, labeled only with a simple red and white sign that said "DON'T". Her brows raised.

"Talk about your reverse psychology," she said as she walked towards the door.

The room was normally padlocked, but Buffy could see the lock had been torn off. By Angel, perhaps? She pulled the door open and walked through.

Inside was a nondescript room in gun-metal grey. In its center, an obese man sat in a chair; a towel over his head obscuring his features. Above him was a large metallic egg that was glowing and humming. Buffy stepped towards the man.

"You...shouldn't be here...either," the man suddenly said, his voice weak.

"Yeah, I got that impression from the welcome sign you hung out there, not to mention the X-Files atmosphere," Buffy replied. "Listen, tubby, I'm here because a friend of mine..."

Suddenly, the egg hovering above the man hummed louder. A section of it opened in the shape of an ersatz smile, revealing a brightly glowing interior. Buffy frowned and stared at it.

_ZAP!!_

* * *

Angel sat in his office, waiting anxiously. He felt so useless, so...impotent. He reflected bitterly that the term was doubly appropriate since he wasn't anatomically correct. Just another aggravation about being a G-rated, family-friendly puppet.

He silently cursed the spell which had changed him into a puppet for the umpteenth time since it had happened. Once he'd realized that Buffy was heading for the Smile Time studios, his puppet excitability had gotten him so agitated that it had taken him nearly a quarter of an hour to convey what had happened to Gunn, Wes, Fred, and Lorne. Spike, as usual, was nowhere to be found any time he might actually be useful, not that Angel minded with Buffy around. But precious minutes had been lost. Now all he could do was sit and wait for the tactical team to report in.

Suddenly, the door to his office opened. He looked up hopefully. Wes walked in, his steps slow and heavy, his face more troubled than usual, and that was saying something. He walked into the office, leaving the door open behind him, and approached Angel's desk. The ex-Watcher's dark eyes did not stop gazing at the carpet until he came to a stop in front of Angel's desk.

"The tactical team...?" Angel asked.

Wes took a deep breath before answering. "I'm...sorry, Angel," he said quietly in his cultured British accent. "They...didn't get there in time."

"You mean..."

Suddenly, Angel heard several soft, rapid footfalls from behind Wesley, as if some tiny creature was running towards his desk. The footfalls stopped and Wesley took a surprised step back as a small figure jumped from the floor to the top of Angel's desk.

Angel's broad puppet mouth dropped open in shock. His small, beady black eyes slowly looked the figure standing on his desk up and down. The small, oval-shaped felt head was draped by long blond hair. Thick black lashes were atop the button-shaped eyes, which were set into a flesh-colored felt face, and sat above a wide mouth with two tiny red lips embossed in its middle like little butterfly wings. A tiny brown leather coat over a white blouse covered the torso of a slender puppet body that was subtly feminine, and black pants and tiny black leather boots clad her short puppet legs. Though her features now made it difficult to convey, Angel could see that she was glaring at him. When she crossed her little arms over her chest and cocked her head to one side, it just confirmed it.

"I hope you realize," Puppet Buffy said testily, "that this is _ALL YOUR FAULT!!_"

_To be continued..._


	2. Part 2 of 3

**Slay Time**

_An Angel fanfic by Sisiutil_

* * *

Joss and ME own the characters, I'm just playing with them.

This one is just for fun. This story is an alternate version of "Smile Time".

* * *

**Part 2**

"_My _fault?!?" Puppet Angel exclaimed indignantly. His heavy, furry brow was raised, his little three-fingered, felt-covered hands spread wide. "How could any of this be _my_ fault?!?"

"You could have _warned_ me!" Puppet Buffy snapped back at him.

She was standing atop his desk in his office at Wolfram and Hart, her little puppet arms crossed over her slender chest, her felt-covered head cocked in irritation. One little leather-booted foot tapped angrily on the finely-crafted mahogany desktop. Her black pants clung tightly to her thin puppet legs, and her brown leather jacket and white blouse would have looked quite elegant on her normal, full-sized, human form. Reduced to puppet-size, however, her clothing just looked..._cute_. There was no other word for it.

Buffy had come to Los Angeles to see Angel and had found him under a spell that had changed him into a puppet. Taking charge of the situation as usual, Buffy had gone off to the "Smile Time" studios to try to find out who or what had changed her ex-lover into a two-foot-tall construction of felt, foam rubber, and polyester stuffing. To say that her rescue attempt had gone horribly awry would be an understatement of mythic proportions.

"I _tried_ to warn you!" Angel insisted. "But _noooooooo_...you had to go running off to play hero..."

"_Play hero?!?_" Buffy said, stamping one little foot angrily on the top of Angel's desk. "It's my _job_, Angel! I don't remember hearing you complain all those other times I saved your pasty white rump!"

"Oh, sure," Angel grumbled, "make fun of my complexion. Not like I can _do_ something about it, like go out and get a _tan_ like everyone else in L.A...."

"And furthermore," Buffy said, looking down at her puppet body and speaking as if she hadn't heard a word Angel said, "I think these puppet clothes make me look _fat_!"

Angel sighed. "They don't make you look fat."

"Oh," Buffy said sharply, her felt-covered head lifting so her heavily-lashed eyes could glare at him, "but I still _could _be fat, even if the clothes don't make me look it?"

"No, that is _not _what I said," Angel said, trying to control his growing irritation.

"And you might _subjectively_ think I'm _not_ fat," Buffy went on, crossing her little arms again, "but _objectively_, I could be?"

Angel sighed angrily. _The dangers of a college education_, he thought. How on Earth had he ended up in the conversation from hell with his girlfriend? _Ex-_girlfriend, he reminded himself, though it always pained him to think of her that way. The sudden pang of lost love did not help his mood.

"Look," Angel said, his puppet-magnified impatience evident in his voice, "could we please stop talking about _HOW FAT YOU ARE?!?_"

As soon as he said it, he realized his horrible mistake. Puppet Buffy's little arched brows rose as high as they could go on her felt forehead. Her wide puppet mouth, with its tiny red lips at its center, opened wide in anger and shock. Angel's brow rose in terror, and he held up his little hands apologetically.

"_YOU THINK I'M FAT!!_" Buffy screeched. Her little felt hands curled into fists that would have looked awfully cute if Angel weren't so suddenly and utterly terrified. Buffy's mouth slammed shut, her lower lip pushing up against the upper one and trembling slightly. She reached inside her little leather coat and pulled out a tiny wooden stake and held it up threateningly. "You insensitive _jerk_! I ought to dust you right now!"

Angel made no move to avoid her impending assault. _Yes, please, stake me and put me out of my misery, _he thought dejectedly.

"BUFFY!" Wesley said, stepping forward and reaching out to stop the puppet Slayer's attack. "Angel! Both of you! Try to control yourselves!" Both ensorcelled champions had, in their agitation, forgotten that Wesley was present. "Listen to me, Buffy. The puppet spell doesn't just make you _look _like a puppet--you also end up _acting _like one. Your emotional reactions are heightened. You'll suffer from intense mood swings and sudden losses of temper."

"So, what," Buffy said after thinking about what Wesley had said, "we have, like, puppet PMS?"

Wesley's brows rose slightly. "An...apt metaphor, I suppose," he said cautiously.

"Hmph. 'Apt metaphor'," Buffy repeated in an amused voice. "That's so Gilesey."

"Thank you, I think," Wesley said, relaxing now that the Slayer appeared to be calming down.

"Uh, could you put away..." Angel said, pointing at the small, but still threatening stake.

"Oh!" Buffy cried, glancing at the weapon. She quickly stuffed it back into her coat, then walked across the desk towards Angel. "I'm so sorry, Angel!" she said, her voice distraught over what she'd almost done. "I'd _never_ stake you, you _know_ that! I just...lost it. It-it must be the spell, like Wesley said!"

"Hey, it's okay, no harm done," Angel said with a casual wave of his felt-covered hand. "And if I was going to be staked by anyone...well, I'd want it to be you."

Buffy knelt down in front of him and gazed at him sweetly.

"Oh, Angel," she cooed.

"Oh, Buffy..." he murmured.

"Oh, God," Wesley muttered.

The two puppets turned to glare at him, but Wesley didn't mind. Buffy and Angel's maudlin, angst-ridden romance was hard enough to take at the best of times, but in puppet form? He'd be tempted to gouge his own eyes out rather than watch that.

"You know, you're different," Puppet Buffy said to Wesley as she straightened and walked across the desk towards him. She cocked her felt head and studied him. "Less dorky. Not big on the stubbly look, but _anything_ would have been an improvement."

"Well...thank you...ever so much," Wesley replied dubiously.

Puppet Buffy frowned. "Are you still keeping a girl in your closet?"

Wesley's eyes went wide, and he coughed in embarrassment. "No, not for some time, actually...how did you...?"

"Oh, Willow told me," Buffy said with a casual wave of her little hand. "It was, like, major ick. Good thing that's over, 'cause puppet or not, I'd have to kick your ass."

"It was for a good cause," Wesley said defensively. "I did it for Angel."

"Yeah, right," Buffy said, her voice heavy with sarcasm. "'Oh, that girl in the bondage gear in my closet? She's not for me. I'm holding her for a friend!'"

Angel and Wesley were both aghast. "It wasn't like that!" they said in unison.

"Whatever..." Buffy muttered, her little button-sized eyes gazing up at the ceiling.

Just then, their attention was drawn to another figure that walked in through Angel's office door. His long black leather duster swung around his legs, the soft flapping noise announcing his presence. His angular features, and that head of bleached-blond hair, made him immediately recognizable. He quickly took in Wesley and Angel, but failed to notice Buffy at first. Puppet Buffy, for her part, was staring in amazement at him, her wide mouth open and revealing her painted tongue and larynx.

"Don't getcher knickers in a twist, 'head boy'", Spike said to Wesley, "I'm just poppin' in to see the big man." He smirked. "Or, _little _ man now, as it were." Spike approached the desk, then stopped abruptly when he spotted the other, distinctively female puppet. "Oh. Well. Found a playmate for the wee little puppet man, eh?" Spike's smirk grew as he looked Puppet Buffy up and down. "Well, isn't that just..." Spike's voice trailed off. He frowned, studying the female puppet; there was something oddly familiar about it...

"Spike!" Buffy said. "You're...you're alive! Or...still undead, I guess..."

Spike's eyes went wide. He took a step back. "Buffy?" he said incredulously.

Spike's pale blue eyes looked her up and down again, as if he couldn't believe what he saw. But he'd heard her voice, the voice he heard in his dreams, the voice he'd know anywhere. The last time that voice had said something to him, it had said the one thing he'd longed to hear from her for so long, the one thing he'd been willing to die for. He'd been fighting with the urge to call her, to see her, ever since he'd come back. But he'd resisted. Why? Because he was afraid, and he wasn't used to being afraid. Even so, he knew that one way or another, he'd have to see her again. Now here she was, standing right before him. _And she was a bloody puppet!_

Spike's face suddenly clouded with rage. He turned to glare at Angel. "_What the bleedin' 'ell 'ave you done to 'er?!?_" Spike snarled and launched himself at Angel, grasping the shocked puppet around his soft felt throat.

"Urk!" Angel exclaimed. "Spike..." he rasped as the other vampire yanked him out of his chair with an angry roar.

"Hey!" Buffy shouted. "Leave him alone!"

Angel frowned, his puppet fuse already burning short. He pulled back his legs and then struck out, kicking Spike square in the chest. The blond vampire reeled backwards, but kept his grip on Angel. As Spike tottered back past the side of the desk, Buffy launched herself at him. She landed on his shoulder and wrapped her little legs around his neck and her arms around his head of blond hair, which she yanked on painfully.

"Ow!" Spike shouted. "Buffy, stop...OW!" he cried petulantly.

"Quit whining!" Buffy said angrily as Spike, with Angel now biting down strongly but ineffectually on his wrist, stumbled backwards into the center of the office. "Gee, it's just like old times!" she added as she began to pummel Spike's temple with her soft little fist.

Spike had now let go of Angel and was waving his arm madly in a vain attempt to shake the puppet loose, but Angels' broad puppet mouth remained firmly clamped onto Spike's forearm. Puppet Buffy remained fastened to his head, one little arm partially blinding him and the other pulling back his upper lip into an unintentional but appropriate sneer. All three combatants were grunting with exertion.

"Oh, dear Lord..." Wesley muttered as his dark brown eyes rolled up towards the ceiling.

Spike was back-pedaling blindly, struggling now with two very angry puppets. He stumbled into Angel's coffee table and fell over backwards. He landed on the table awkwardly, then bounced off it, the two puppets still clinging to him as he rolled across the carpeted floor. Finally, he managed to shake Angel loose and toss him aside. He then grabbed Buffy where she was still latched onto his head and pulled her off. She spun away from him, but deftly landed on her little puppet feet.

Spike remained on the floor, glancing back and forth between the two puppets who were both glaring at him, apparently ready to recommence the fight at a moment's notice.

"Couldn't stand it, could you?" Spike spat at Angel. "Couldn't bear it, bein' a ruddy puppet! You 'ad to make 'er into one too! I hope you're satisfied..."

"Hey!" Buffy declared, placing her little felt hands on her hips. "It wasn't his fault!"

"Yeah!" Angel agreed, then glanced at Buffy. "And thank you for finally admitting it! Look, Spike, she went to Smile Time to try to help me, before I could warn her. I didn't_ want_ this to happen to her!"Spike only snorted derisively.

"Besides," Buffy went on, "aren't you supposed to be _dead_?"

"Oh, now _there's _the pot callin' the bloody kettle!" Spike said, the anger in his voice failing to conceal the hurt that was there as well. "So much for the tearful, relieved reunion! 'Oh, Spike'," he said, eyes towards the ceiling, his voice raised mockingly, "'...I thought I'd lost you when you saved the world...and my life! Now why aren't you _dead_, you bloody _git_?'" he finished, his voice falling back to its hurt, resentful timbre. He glanced at Buffy angrily. "No wonder I didn't believe you when you told me you loved me!" Spike sat up, his legs bent, and wrapped his arms around his knees. He turned from Buffy and stared morosely at the carpet.

"You told him you _loved _him?" Angel said incredulously, his little felt hand pointing at Spike. "_Him?!_" Buffy just shrugged, uncertain what she should say. Angel crossed his arms, his broad lower lip pressing upwards, and turned away from Buffy. He made a petulant _ harumph_-ing noise.

"Oh, quit pouting, both of you!" Buffy said angrily. "What have you got, like, _four hundred years_ between the two of you? You'd think a little _ maturity _would be part of the whole immortality deal..." The two vampires looked a little embarrassed at that. "Spike...it just threw me for a loop, seeing you..."

"Yeah, well, same here, especially since..." Spike said, turning to glance at Buffy. He paused in mid-sentence. "No. No, I can't do this," he said as he pushed himself to his feet.

"What? Do what?" Buffy asked as she stared up at him. "You can't talk to me just because I'm a puppet?"

"You're bloody well right I can't!" Spike declared. "Buffy, I have so much to say to you! But...I kind of need to say it with a straight face, and you...!" He smirked, waved his open hand at her, and did his best to suppress a giggle. Puppet Buffy's mouth opened in shock. "No. I can't. I can't take this," Spike said as his smile disappeared. He then turned and walked towards the door. "It's a madhouse. A sodding madhouse!" he cried as he walked out of the office.

"Well...I'm _glad _you went all Cajun-crusty saving the world!" Buffy shouted angrily after him. "I hope it _hurt_!" she added petulantly. In the distance, she could just see his long black coat flapping about his lithe legs like a bat's wings, and the short, nearly-white, wavy hair atop his head. "_Damn_, he's hot..." she muttered.

"Maybe, but he sure can't stand the heat..." Angel said, smug triumph in his voice, as he ambled over beside her.

"Oh, don't start!" Buffy said, turning to glare at him. "You know, _you _ could have told me Spike was back!"

Angel's mouth dropped open. "Hey! He didn't want me to!"

"Uh-huh."

"Really!"

"Hey, Angel, I think we found something..._whoah_." Charles Gunn said as he walked into Angel's office and stopped dead in his tracks as he spotted Puppet Buffy. Fred and Lorne were right on his heels. They also stopped, looking past him in puzzlement until they spotted the second puppet standing next to Angel.

"There's..._another_ puppet?" Fred asked rhetorically, staring wide-eyed at Buffy.

"Oh, I need another Seabreeze," Lorne declared.

Angel sighed. "Everyone, this is Buffy. Buffy, this is Fred, Gunn, and Lorne," he said. "She went down to Smile Time to try to help me, and then..."

"Buffy? As in vampire-dustin', apocalypse-avertin', undead-ass-kickin' Buffy?" Gunn said, his lips curling into a smile. "It's an honor!" he said, bending down and reaching out to shake Buffy's little felt hand.

"Charles Gunn, right?" Buffy said as she shook his hand. Gunn's eyebrows rose in surprise as he released her hand and straightened. "I hear you've taken out more than a few of the evil undead yourself," she said in a complimentary tone.

"Ah, strictly bush league stuff," Gunn said with an appreciative smile and a dismissive wave of his hand. "You, you're dream team material." He studied the Vampire Slayer for a moment. "But you know, I kind of thought you'd be taller."

"Yeah, I get that even when I'm _not _a puppet..." Buffy remarked.

"Uh, Angel-cakes..." Lorne said anxiously, "are we..._all _gonna turn into puppets? 'Cause I think I'd like to get my desk munchkinized in advance."

"We are not _all _gonna turn into puppets!" Angel said angrily. "Gunn. You said you have something?"

"Actually, Fred has something..." Gunn said, turning with a smile towards Fred.

"Oh," the slender brunette said, "well, actually, it was Wesley that put me onto it..."

"Could you people cut the mutual admiration society and _spill _already?!" Buffy insisted.

"Uh, right, sorry," Fred said with a nervous glance at Buffy. "Well...there's a hidden carrier wave masked by a spell that turns the TV into a 2-way conduit with direct access to the viewer. The big egg-thingy you both must have encountered is, like, this big _capacitor_ for the children's life force."

"Ah!" Wesley said suddenly. All eyes--puppet, demon, and human, turned to him. "So if we can break the binding magic on it..."

"It should free those children," Fred finished his thought for him with an admiring smile. "Oh, and... it should also...reverse your puppet problem. _ Problems_."

Angel's wide puppet mouth opened in a big smile. He ran forward and wrapped himself around Fred's leg. "I _love_ you guys!" he shouted.

Fred looked down at Angel in surprise, then smiled abashedly as she glanced at Puppet Buffy, who suddenly appeared to be working up towards a really good fume.

"A-_hem_," Buffy coughed pointedly, her little arms crossing over her chest.

"Oh," Angel said as he pushed himself away from Fred's slender but shapely legs. "Uh, just, acknowledging the excellent work of the team. Heh." Buffy just glared at him. "Well, we better go take care of Framkin..."

"Oh, Framkin's not the one doing it," Gunn said. "I pulled the contract. It's the puppets. They're demons. The show is possessed."

"Aren't _all_ children's shows possessed?" Buffy remarked.

"Barney wasn't!" Fred insisted. Everyone stared at her. She glanced at Gunn uncertainly. "Was he?"

"You really don't wanna know the answer to that question," Gunn said.

"So, if we want to take out Smile Time," Buffy began to say as she walked over to Angel's wall of weapons...

"...we take out the puppets," Angel said, following her.

She jumped up and grabbed hold of a broadsword; she landed on her little puppet feet and handed it to him. Then she jumped up again and pulled down a hand-axe that dwarfed her puppet body. The two puppets turned and cast determined looks at the others.

"Puppets with weapons," Lorne murmured. "Why is this not a comforting sight?"

"Lorne, you stay here and hold down the fort," Angel said. "Everyone else--with me and Buffy." He turned and glanced at the puppet-form of his one true love. "You ready to kick some cute, fuzzy demon ass?"

"I could slay," Buffy replied with false nonchalance.

"That's my girl," Angel said as he slung the huge broadsword over his shoulders and Buffy rested the axe upon one of hers. The two puppet champions walked towards the door and then through it, followed by Gunn, Fred, and Wes, all marching determinedly out into battle.

"Let's take out some puppets!" Angel said.

As they marched out through the lobby of Wolfram and Hart, Puppet Buffy gave Angel a soft nudge in the the spot where his ribs would normally have been.

"'Let's take out some puppets?'" she quoted under her breath. "No offense, but as rousing battle cries go? Not one of your best."

Puppet Angel sighed as he walked towards the elevators. "I'll work on it..." he muttered. Then his brow raised thoughtfully. "_Work_...go to work? Get to work? Hmmm..."

_To be continued..._


	3. Part 3 of 3

**Slay Time**

_An Angel fanfic by Sisiutil_

* * *

Joss and ME own the characters, I'm just playing with them.

This one is just for fun. This story is an alternate version of "Smile Time".

* * *

**Part 3**

Polo Puppet, the leader of the group of demons running Smile Time, pressed his hands against the camera. He could feel the life energy of the children watching the show flowing through him and into the nest egg. It felt incredible. All that innocence and purity surging through him--not even sex came close to how blissful it felt.

"Oh! Ohh... let it go! Let it all go!" he moaned rapturously. "After all..._it's Smile Time!_" he added as his puppet features took on a decidedly malevolent cast.

"No, it's not," a male voice declared from a few yards away.

Polo gasped and looked towards the speaker. He saw a dark-haired, heavy-browed puppet, holding a sword, glaring at him. He'd never seen this puppet before, but knew who it must be in an instant: Angel. Another puppet, this one female, stood beside him, brandishing a small battle-axe, and a tall dark-skinned human in a finely-tailored suit was standing behind them.

"...it's time to kick your puppet ass all the way back to hell!" Puppet Buffy said.

Puppet Angel frowned and turned towards her. "I was gonna say that..." he said petulantly. Puppet Buffy just shrugged and launched herself forward with a battle yell, swinging her little battle-axe threateningly. "She always gets the best lines," Angel muttered as he followed her into battle.

"Get them!" Polo Puppet yelled to his comrades as Buffy, Angel, and Gunn attacked them.

Polo stepped back, away from Buffy's attack. Polo's fellow demon, the Puppet Girl with No Name, snarled, snatched up a large, brightly-painted lollipop set decoration, and ran forward to take on Buffy. Puppet Angel ducked past them in pursuit of Polo Puppet. Gunn stepped forward and was confronted by a growling, snarling Groofus, the dog puppet.

"You're ruining the show!" Groofus said.

"We're workin' on it," Gunn replied. As he raised his sword on a backswing, Groofus attacked, launching himself at Gunn and forcing the battle-ready lawyer to back-pedal.

Angel and Polo were now engaged in an all-out battle. Angel swung his sword at Polo, but the puppet demon ducked out of its way and threw himself at Angel's mid-section. The body-blow knocked the sword from Angel's grip, and Polo wound up on top of Angel and began to pummel him with his little felt fists.

"It's a full-scale attack!" Polo yelled to the others. "Ratio!" he shouted to the large, purple puppet who communicated entirely through a horn in his face. "The nest egg!" Ratio Hornblower jumped up with a panicked toot and quickly waddled out of the studio to protect the container of the children's life energy.

Polo returned his attention to Angel. He lifted the puppet champion and punched him, knocking Angel into the television set's dog house. Polo stepped towards the dog house just as Puppet Angel's hand reached out, grabbed Polo, and pulled him inside. The little house began to rock and shake as the battle continued inside it, the sound of the two puppet's blows and grunts escaping through the dog house's little door.

"Angel!" Buffy shouted, seeing her ex-boyfriend in trouble. Then Puppet Girl swung the lollipop at her, and Buffy barely leapt up out of the cheery decoration's path in time.

"Worry about yourself, missy!" Puppet Girl shouted, swinging the lollipop again. "I'm gonna knock you down and tear out those pretty eyes!"

"Now that's just rude," Buffy said. Buffy raised her axe and caught the lollipop as it swung towards her head. To her surprise, the set decoration did not break against the metal axe's sharp blade. "Wow," she said, "that's some lollipop."

"It's not a lollipop!" Puppet Girl said. "It's a _jawbreaker_!" she shouted, drawing the decoration-cum-weapon back and swinging it yet again.

Buffy stepped back from the swing, but the lollipop caught her battle-axe and knocked it from her hands. The axe spun through the air and clattered across the floor away from Buffy. Puppet Girl leered at her triumphantly.

"'Jawbreaker'? Hey, _I'm_ the one with the lame puns, okay?" Buffy said as she warily backed away from her opponent.

Behind her, Gunn was rolling around on the floor, his hands tightly gripping Groofus, who was snarling and trying to tear his throat out.

"Just my luck," Gunn said through teeth clenched into a grimace, "I get the junk-yard puppet dog."

"I'm gonna _bite your balls off!_" Groofus snarled. Gunn's eyes went wide, then his face folded into an angry, determined frown as he renewed his struggle with the puppet canine.

Meanwhile, Puppet Girl was swinging her lollipop at Buffy, who was desperately, if nimbly, doing her best to avoid getting struck by the brightly-painted and surprisingly solid set decoration.

"I'm gonna tear you apart, little girl!" Puppet Girl snarled.

"I'll settle for knocking the stuffing out of you," Buffy said, then leapt away from another swing of the lollipop. "Get it?" she asked. "Puppet? Stuffing?" Puppet Girl only growled at her. "You know, you're never going to get ahead in children's entertainment if you don't have a sense of humor."

Puppet Girl swung the lollipop at Buffy, but the Vampire Slayer anticipated the attack. She threw herself forward and somersaulted beneath the lollipop and past Puppet Girl, towards her fallen battle-axe. Buffy rolled to a sitting position, grabbed the axe, then lay back to avoid another swing of Puppet Girl's lollipop. Buffy drew her little puppet legs up to her chest, then flung them forward, allowing her legs' momentum to throw her to her feet. Before her opponent could swing her lollipop again, Buffy deftly struck with her battle-axe, swinging it in a deadly arc. The blade cut cleanly through Puppet Girl's neck and sent her little round head flying through the air. It landed and bounced once on the studio floor, then Puppet Girl's body dropped the lollipop, teetered one way, then the other, and finally toppled over.

"Guess you'll never get ahead now. Heh, 'a head', get it?" Buffy said. She glanced around, but Gunn and Angel were busy with their own battles. "Hrmph. If a pun falls in the forest, and there's no one paying ANY ATTENTION...?"

Angel and Polo burst out of the dog house and rolled to a stop on the studio floor. Angel landed on top of Polo, pressing him down and choking him.

"So," Polo said, noticing Angel's enhanced strength, "you got a little demon in ya!"

"I got a _lot_ of demon in me," Angel declared. Suddenly, his puppet forehead contorted and two fangs emerged from his mouth. His eyes turned red and feral. Polo puppet gasped in fear at the sight of Angel's puppet vampire face. "Now come on!"

Angel lifted Polo from the ground and threw him towards the treehouse. The demon puppet flew through the air and smashed into the treehouse railing. The railing broke, Polo fell, and then the treehouse collapsed on top of him. The lead puppet demon lay limp beneath it.

Angel glared at Polo for a moment. Seeing his opponent did not stir, he turned to check on his fellow combatants. Puppet Buffy was standing over the decapitated body of Puppet Girl, while Gunn was pushing himself to his feet and brushing the dismembered remnants of Groofus' stuffing from his finely-tailored suit.

"Gunn?" Angel said.

"Think I'm good," Gunn said as he glanced at two of Groofus' torn, furry limbs, and threw them aside.

Puppet Buffy walked up to Angel. She was staring at him.

"What?" Angel said to her.

"You have...puppet vamp face," Buffy said.

"Oh. Yeah," Angel replied morosely. "I bet it's cute and adorable too..."

"Actually," Buffy said, "it's giving me a major-league wiggins."

"Oh," Angel said. He gave his head a shake, and it returned to normal. Puppet normal, anyway. "That better?"

"Marginally," Buffy said as she examined his heavy-browed puppet features.

They turned their heads as Wesley and Fred entered the studio. Fred was carrying a scroll in one hand and a shotgun in the other. Wesley was busy wiping away what looked like popcorn Styrofoam packing material from his clothing.

"The nest egg...?" Angel asked them.

"Taken care of," Wesley answered, and continued to pick stuffing from his shirt. "We had a slight problem with the big puppet...'Ratio Hornblower'..."

"...but I blew him away," Fred said, patting her shotgun, then giggling girlishly.

Wesley turned and beamed at her. "That's very clever," he commented. Fred blushed and smiled.

"Oh sure," Buffy muttered. "Everybody loves _her _puns..."

"Uh, guys," Angel said, glancing at his little felt hands, then at Buffy. "Good work, but, uh..._why are we still puppets?_"

Wesley and Fred stopped smiling at one another to look at Angel and Buffy, who remained in puppet form. "Oh, uh," Fred stammered, "it, might, you know, take a little while to wear off." She shrugged apologetically.

"Define 'a little while'," Buffy said sharply, crossing her little puppet arms across her chest.

"A few hours," Wes answered, then coughed and glanced uncertainly at Fred. "Or...days...?"

"DAYS?!?" Buffy snapped. She sighed angrily. "GOD, I hate L.A."

* * *

Puppet Angel sat atop several phone books he'd placed on his office chair so he could see over the top of his desk. Puppet Buffy was sitting on top of the desk, her little legs hanging over the edge and swinging idly as Angel finished debriefing his team.

"Well, I guess that's it," Angel said. "Once this mystical mojo wears off and Buffy and I are back in human form, we can consider this case closed. That's all for now."

Wes, Fred, Gunn, and Lorne rose from their chairs, all of them still casting glances back at the two puppets.

"I still say it's weird takin' orders from a puppet," Gunn muttered once they'd left Angel's office.

"It's watching the two of them together that I find most disturbing," Wesley said quietly.

"Awww, I think they're kind of cute together!" Fred declared. Gunn just rolled his eyes and walked away. Fred glanced at Wesley. "Could I...talk to you about something in your office?" she asked. Wesley nodded, and Fred smiled.

Meanwhile, in Angel's office, the two puppets sat in an awkward silence for a moment after the others had left. Puppet Angel's heavy brow rose, and he sighed. He pushed himself off of the phone books and jumped down to the floor.

"Well," he said to Buffy, "you're...welcome to stay here until this wears off."

"I wouldn't want to be a burden," Buffy said as she pushed herself off the desk and landed on the floor next to him.

"You're not a burden," Angel declared softly. "You could never be a burden, Buffy. Not to me..."

"Angel," Buffy said, interrupting him. "Look, I came here to say something to you, and I want to say it. Now seems like a good time." Angel nodded. Buffy sighed, turned, and slowly walked away from him. "Andrew told me what he said to you. About none of us trusting you anymore."

Angel nodded. "Was that true?"

"It was," Buffy said sadly. She turned around to face Angel. "You have to understand. We heard you were running the L.A. branch of Demons R Us," she said, glancing around and waving her arms at the office and the building in which they found themselves. She looked at Angel again. "And you didn't call me to explain why," she added reproachfully.

"I know," Angel admitted, glancing down at the carpet. "I just...you have enough on your plate," he said with a shrug. How could he have possibly explained it to her? How could he have told her about the son he'd had, and given up, that no one else now remembered?

"Maybe," Buffy said. She began to slowly walk back towards him. "Regardless, I thought about it, and...it comes down to one thing. I believe in you, Angel." Angel's head rose, and he regarded Buffy with surprised appreciation. "Always have, always will. So, I realized, whatever you're doing here, you have a reason. And a plan. You don't have to tell me about them, though. Because...I _do _trust you."

Angel could only stare at her in silence at first. "Thanks," he eventually managed to mutter. "That means...a lot, you saying that." He did not add, however, that while he certainly had a reason--one that a mystical spell had ensured that everyone had forgotten about, save him--he didn't really have a plan. But first Cordelia, and now Buffy, were making him realize that he needed one.

Buffy nodded. "I thought it might, and that it would mean more if I said it in person...or...in _puppet_, as it were. Anyway, that's what I came here to say." She turned and took a step towards the office door.

"Buffy, wait," Angel said, stepping towards her quickly; Buffy stopped. "There's...I want to..." He sighed. "Look, seeing you again, you have to know, it does things to me, and..."

"Angel," Buffy said, her voice sad but firm as she interrupted him again, "there's...something else I came here to tell you. Something that I think it's better to tell you myself, in person. You deserve that much." Angel watched her expectantly. "I'm...seeing someone."

Angel stared at her, in silent shock, for several moments. "Oh," he finally said. "Well. Good," he added, unconvincingly. "I mean, you know, as long as you're happy..."

"I'm not _perfectly_ happy," Buffy said with a sad smile.

Angel's mouth curled slightly. "That's supposed to be my problem," he said.

"It's not the only one," Buffy said. "Please, don't pretend you don't have a problem with this. I know you better than that."

Angel frowned. "You're damn right I'm not okay with this," he said. He turned from her, and his hands tightened into fists. "The thought of you with anyone else...I mean, Spike was bad enough, and let's not even start with Riley Do-Right, but..._anyone_..."

"I know," Buffy said sadly. "I wish....well. Anyway. I just preferred that you hear it from me."

She turned to go once again. Angel spun around, walked towards her, and caught her arm. "Buffy..." he said.

"Please, Angel, don't say anything," Buffy said, her voice cracking with emotion. "It'll be easier for both of us if you don't."

"I won't say a word," Angel declared ardently.

He gently took hold of Buffy's arms, then turned her to face him. They stared into one another's eyes for a moment. Then Angel pulled her body against his own and wrapped his arms around her. Buffy gasped softly and placed her hands upon his chest. But she didn't push him away. Angel leaned towards her. He pressed his lips against hers, softly at first, then passionately. Buffy sighed softly and threw her arms around his neck. They kissed, their mouths pressed together, dry felt rubbing against dry felt, the polyester stuffing compressing beneath it...

Angel and Buffy broke the kiss and released one another. They each took a step back.

"Well," Puppet Angel said, somewhat embarrassed, "that was...different."

"Yeah," Puppet Buffy said. "Might have been better if we weren't, you know, _puppets_."

"I guess."

"A for effort, though, Romeo," she teased him.

"Thanks," Angel said. "I just...kind of got carried away. Which, I know, is dangerous with you and me, but hey, we're puppets, right? It's not like we were going to...well, you know..."

The two puppets stared at one another for a very long moment.

"Okay," Puppet Buffy said, "did you just go to a scary visual place?"

"Uh, yeah."

"Right. Me too. Time to go," she said and turned towards the door yet again. "Tell Spike..." she began to say, then paused, and shrugged her puppet shoulders helplessly. "Tell him good-bye for me," she said sadly.

"Call me when you get back?" Angel said.

"Of course," Buffy replied softly.

She then walked out of his door, and out of his life, yet again. Angel sighed, then turned and walked back to his desk. He jumped up into his chair to stare morosely at the desktop for several minutes. After a while, he reached for one of his pens, just so his hands would have something to do while he engaged in some heavy-duty brooding. As he grasped the pen, he suddenly noticed that his hand was back to its usual, five-fingered, flesh-and-bone self. He glanced down and realized he was sitting about a foot higher than normal. The spell had worn off. He should have felt elated, but he didn't. With a sigh, he stood up and removed the phone books from his chair.

As he sat down again, his office door opened and Spike walked in. The blond vampire stopped dead in his tracks when he spotted Angel sitting behind his desk.

"Well," Spike said, "look at you. All flesh and otter blood, eh?"

"Yeah," Angel muttered. "Everything's back to normal..." he added bitterly.

Spike's eyes widened in sudden realization. "So...Buffy must be herself again too!"

"I guess," Angel said morosely. He glanced at Spike and caught the vampire's quizzical expression. "She's gone. Left a few minutes ago."

"SHE'S GONE?!?" Spike exclaimed. "And wot, you just let 'er _go_?" Spike turned and began to walk towards the office door. "Well, sod you, broody boy," he said over his shoulder, "_I'm_ not gonna sit on my arse and give up on the best thing..."

"Spike," Angel said. There was something in the tone of Angel's voice--an absence of the usual anger and contempt with which he usually uttered that name, and a hint of...sympathy?--that made Spike stop dead, turn, and look back at his fellow ensouled vampire.

"Wot?" Spike asked.

"She's...seeing someone," Angel told him.

Spike stared at him, as if the statement made no sense whatsoever. Then realization slowly dawned on Spike's features, especially when he heard the undeclared addendum in his head: _someone who isn't us_.

"Oh," Spike said. He took a step back into the office, then stopped. "Well." He glanced down at the carpet and, not knowing what else to do, simply stood there.

"Yeah..." Angel murmured and cast his eyes down to stare at the surface of his desk.

The two vampires remained that way for some time, each lost in his own thoughts. They did not part company, apparently taking whatever cold comfort could be found in one another's presence. Outside, on the other side of the specially-treated glass that protected them from its rays, the sun sank behind the towering spires of downtown Los Angeles. The sky gradually grew dark with the onset of night.

* * *

_The End_


End file.
